President Jacques Chirac

ALGIERS - The presidents of Algeria and France will meet as the two countries move to improve often-strained relations, the official Algerian news agency APS reported Friday. President Jacques Chirac of France plans to visit Algeria soon, officials said. Relations between France and its former North African colony have been under perpetual strain.

WORLD PARIS - A French judge ordered former President Jacques Chirac to stand trial on embezzlement charges predating his presidency, a case that could mark the first time a former leader of modern France is forced to defend himself in court. Chirac is to be tried on embezzlement and breach of trust allegations in a corruption case dating back to his tenure as mayor of Paris, a judicial official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. A prosecutor can still appeal the judge's decision, so the ensuing judicial deliberations could last months.

TRIPOLI, Libya -- French President Jacques Chirac has accepted an invitation to visit Libya this year, Michel Barnier, France's foreign minister, said Wednesday. It would be the first trip to Libya by a French president in two decades.

PARIS -- The two candidates to be France's next president squared off Wednesday in their first and last televised debate, a highly anticipated encounter before the weekend vote. Segolene Royal, struggling in her quest to become France's first female president, immediately went on the offensive, criticizing Nicolas Sarkozy's record as a minister in President Jacques Chirac's government before he became a candidate for the presidency. Sarkozy, leading in the polls, was scrupulously polite and did not rise to Royal's baiting.

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that President Bush went "too far" by saying the European Union should admit Turkey, and he added that Bush's commenting on Turkish-EU relations was like a French leader commenting on U.S.-Mexican ties.

AVIGNON, France -- President Jacques Chirac on Monday officially launched his re-election bid for the French presidency, opening his campaign with sharp criticism of the Socialist government for squandering economic growth. Chirac, 69, a conservative, had long held off making his candidacy official -- just like the man expected to be his chief rival, Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

PARIS -- France will observe a national day of remembrance for the victims of slavery every May 10, President Jacques Chirac said Monday. The date corresponds with France's adoption of a law May 10, 2001, recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity.

PARIS -- French President Jacques Chirac on Friday urged immediate negotiations between the government and students and unions to defuse escalating protests over a new labor law that sparked nationwide marches and clashes with police. "The government is ready for dialogue," Chirac said. "I hope it starts as quickly as possible."

PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac, hospitalized after suffering a small blood-vessel problem that hindered his vision, is in good condition, walking and discussing the issues of the day, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Sunday. Val de Grace military hospital said the president's condition was "very satisfactory."

By Elaine Sciolino and Katrin Bennhold, the New York Times, February 1, 2007

PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac said this week that if Iran had one or two nuclear weapons, it would not pose a big danger, and that if Iran were to launch a nuclear weapon against a country such as Israel, it would lead to the immediate destruction of Tehran. The remarks, made in an interview on Monday with The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and Le Nouvel Observateur, a weekly magazine, were vastly different from stated French policy and what Chirac has often said.

PARIS -- Nicolas Sarkozy was named the presidential candidate of France's governing conservatives Sunday, and now the law-and-order interior minister heads into an election showdown with a charismatic Socialist as each tries to hold fractious parties together. Opinion polls show Sarkozy and Socialist rival Segolene Royal, who seeks to become the country's first female president, tied as front-runners in a field that could number as many as a dozen candidates in the two-round election in April and May. The winner will usher in a new era after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac.

PARIS -- France's Parliament is to vote in January on a bill that would revise the constitution to include the fact that the death penalty is illegal, judicial officials said Wednesday. Although France abolished capital punishment with a 1981 law, President Jacques Chirac has said he wants to go further by making the policy part of the constitution.

COLOMBEY-LES-DEUX-EGLISES, France -- Laying the first brick for a new memorial honoring the late Gen. Charles de Gaulle, President Jacques Chirac used the ceremony Thursday to emphasize the lasting relevance of the iconic French leader. "The more time passes, the more General de Gaulle's stature grows," Chirac said. The memorial complex is expected to open in 2008.

In 1837, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a college exclusively for women, opened in South Hadley, Mass. In 1889, Montana became the 41st state. In 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, the "Beer-Hall Putsch." In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency. In 1933, President Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.

PARIS -- French students and labor unions staged another day of nationwide strikes and marches against a labor-reform law Tuesday amid signs they would win concessions from an increasingly divided government. A mood of impending triumph gripped marchers because of efforts by President Jacques Chirac to end a two-month crisis that has closed schools and universities and raised fears of a return of last year's urban unrest. "We are perhaps on the verge of a great victory," said Olivier Besancenot, a leader of the Communist Revolutionary party.

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Thursday for talks that were expected to address Iraq, Afghanistan and the European Union. The meeting at the Berlin chancellery came ahead of a three-way summit Wednesday that also will involve French President Jacques Chirac.

Human rights and closer economic ties were on the agenda Monday as King Hassan II of Morocco arrived for his first official visit to France in 11 years. Hassan's three-day visit includes an address to the National Assembly, a state dinner with President Jacques Chirac and private meetings with the leaders of the Moroccan community.

PARIS -- Seeking compromise after weeks of protests against labor-reform legislation, President Jacques Chirac announced Friday that he would sign the law but quickly seek modifications to meet the concerns of angry students and labor unions. Chirac's speech on nationwide television was a much-anticipated response to a growing conflict that has brought strikes, protests, campus sit-ins and violence in recent weeks. The increasingly reclusive Chirac addressed the nation for the first time since last November's riots in immigrant-dominant housing projects, the last crisis to hit his weakened and divided government.

PARIS -- French President Jacques Chirac on Friday urged immediate negotiations between the government and students and unions to defuse escalating protests over a new labor law that sparked nationwide marches and clashes with police. "The government is ready for dialogue," Chirac said. "I hope it starts as quickly as possible."